Educational activity of the Botanical Garden of the Ukrainian State University

Yaroslav Dudych

Botanical Garden of the Ukrainian State University of Forestry and Wood Technology, Lviv, Ukraine

Introduction

The Botanical Garden of the Ukrainian State University of Forestry and Wood Technology at Lviv is an institution of national significance for scientific research, education, and the protection of nature. Founded by the Decree of the Ukrainian Government dated February 22 1991, it originally comprised an Arboretum (in Kobylyanska Street), an Arboretum Park (in Pushkin Street), and an arboretum in the village of Stradch, in Yavoriv district. The Garden occupies an area of 26 hectares.

Education activity

Education is one of the main tasks at the Botanic Garden.

The Ukrainian State University of Forestry and Wood Technology trains specialists for the following fields: forestry, parks and gardens management, applied ecology, landscape architecture, logging technology, woodwork and technology, chemical and mechanical processing of timber and wooden materials, design, accounting and auditing, product management, and the management of foreign economic enterprises.

We pay great attention to educational work in order to spread botanical knowledge. The students of our University are trained in the Botanical Garden, where they acquire practical skills in over 20 subjects, including botany, dendrology, ecology, conservation, seed science, vegetation science, forest cultures, plant protection, and ornamental gardening.

Active educational activities are carried out with the pupils of a Natural Science Lyceum, which is part of the University, and with the students of the Small Forest Academy of our University. Educational work is also carried out with the general population in order to increase knowledge about ecology and conservation. With this end in view, we use collections of living plants, herbariums, seed collections, special exhibitions; we publish popular scientific literature, guides, booklets, and other publications; we also organize lectures, seminars, and deliver lectures via the mass media.

The study of the natural richness of the flora and the introduction into culture of new decorative plants according to their economic is very important as regards the protection of nature. The western region of the Ukraine, in its natural state, is very diverse and is of particular interest because of the wealth of both flat and mountainous parts. The mountain region of the Ukrainian Carpathians is very rich in its floristic composition. It occupies 37 thousand sq. km (6.1 percent) of the territory of the Ukraine. About one half of the State's plant species are concentrated here  2112 species or 46.7 per cent.

However, out of such a great number of plant species an insignificant part is used despite the fact that in their natural state, i.e., without additional cultivation and hybridization, many of them are valuable for the economy (forestry, planting trees and bushes, medicinal raw material, food industry, fodder production, etc.) Besides, plants of natural flora are more resistant to diseases and insects than cultured ones. Among them there are rare, disappearing and endemic species, which is why they need to be studied in order to preserve and spread them.

The above underlines the urgency of the introduction of representatives of the natural flora of the Western Ukraine into the Botanical Garden collection. These plants also need to be introduced into culture in order to preserve, spread, and rationally use them in different areas, as well as for educational work with students and the public.